Meanings
- Collectively, peoples living nomadic, pastoral, hunter-gatherer or other ways of life outside the modern industrial norm.
- attributivederogatoryinformalA notional standard of living or level of development lower than that in the stereotyped Third World.
How did it become what we might as well call a fourth world country that happens to possess intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear payloads?
2024 October 23, Nicholas Eberstadt, “Who’s Afraid of Korean Reunification?”, in Milken Institute Review, archived from the original on 25 Jul 20251 more example
“Three of the deadliest structural collapses in the last 10 years occurred in one county. That’s not even including the other structural failures that were not deadly. One county, dude. This is a third-world government and a fourth-world infrastructure, at the risk of insulting the fourth world.”
2022 February 3, Joel Stein, “How Miami became the most important city in America”, in Financial Times, archived from the original on 16 Feb 2022
Synonyms & antonyms
proper nounSynonym of Túwaquachi.
Origin
Translations
Catalan Quart Món
- Quart MónTraditional civilizations
French quart-monde, Quatrième Monde
- quart-mondeTraditional civilizations
- Quatrième MondeHopi world
- Quatrième UniversHopi world
Polish Czwarty Świat, Czwarty Świat
- Czwarty ŚwiatTraditional civilizations
- Czwarty ŚwiatHopi world
Spanish cuarto mundo
- cuarto mundoTraditional civilizations
Thai โลกที่สี่
- โลกที่สี่Traditional civilizations
Cite this entry
Fourth World. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Fourth%20World
“Fourth World.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Fourth%20World. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Fourth World,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Fourth%20World.
Source: Fourth World on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.